Jury recommends death for dad of starved, beaten 2-year-old

CINCINNATI (AP) — An Ohio jury says the father of a 2-year-old girl who died of starvation and blunt-force injury should be executed for aggravated murder.

A jury in Cincinnati had convicted 34-year-old Glen Bates on that charge and others in the death of Glenara Bates. That jury deliberated less than an hour before recommending a death sentence Wednesday.

A judge will decide whether to accept that recommendation next month.

Bates didn’t speak Wednesday, but his attorneys argued he should get life in prison and that such a sentence would force him to think about what happened every day.

Glenara weighed 13 pounds when she died in March 2015. Authorities say she was beaten and had belt and bite marks, among other injuries.